I was told that it was illegal to release Walleye if I’d had them in the live well – is that true – if so why?

Releasing a walleye after it has been in a live well is surely illegal. It actually may be a bit extravagant way to keep fish fresh until you reach shore. The difficult thing about a live well is getting the fish out of the live well. Now, keep in mind if you have a small live well with too many fish and not enough oxygen from the aeration system to the live well, the fish will slowly die. Then releasing the fish may be determined to be releasing a sick or almost dead fish. In all areas, this is illegal.

If the fish in the live well becomes injured or starts to show signs of lifelessness, you cannot release it back into the waters. This is also illegal. If you have a perfectly healthy walleye in the live well, you cannot safely release it as you will injure it when trying to release it. For the most part, if you are doing a catch and release, you have nothing to worry about. However, if you are looking for the trophy walleye and catching one more than your limit, you need to make sure these fish are completely healthy or you can receive a fine for both over the limit and releasing an unhealthy fish back into the waters.

Keep in mind that walleye fishing is a sport and you should try to keep the smaller one for eating and release the bigger ones that will just be wasted when eating it.